Sunday 6 October 1667

(Lord’s day). Up, and dressed myself, and so walked out with the boy to Smithfield to Cow Lane, to Lincolne’s, and there spoke with him, and agreed upon the hour to-morrow, to set out towards Brampton; but vexed that he is not likely to go himself, but sends another for him. Here I took a hackney coach, and to White Hall, and there met Sir W. Coventry, and discoursed with him, and then with my Lord Bruncker, and many others, to end my matters in order to my going into the country to-morrow for five or six days, which I have not done for above three years. Walked with Creed into the Park a little, and at last went into the Queen’s side, and there saw the King and Queen, and saw the ladies, in order to my hearing any news stirring to carry into the country, but met with none, and so away home by coach, and there dined, and W. How come to see me, and after dinner parted, and I to my writing to my Lord Sandwich, which is the greatest business I have to do before my going into the country, and in the evening to my office to set matters to rights there, and being in the garden Sir W. Pen did come to me, and fell to discourse about the business of “The Flying Greyhound,” wherein I was plain to him and he to me, and at last concluded upon my writing a petition to the Duke of York for a certain ship, The MayboltGallyott, and he offers to give me 300l. for my success, which, however, I would not oblige him to, but will see the issue of it by fair play, and so I did presently draw a petition, which he undertakes to proffer to the Duke of York, and solicit for me, and will not seem to doubt of his success. So I wrote, and did give it him, and left it with him, and so home to supper, where Pelling comes and sits with me, and there tells us how old Mr. Batelier is dead this last night in the night, going to bed well, which I am mightily troubled for, he being a good man. Supper done, and he gone, I to my chamber to write my journal to this night, and so to bed.

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***Dread Cap't Pepys resumes his career of piracy on the high seas on his new galley, the Maybolt...Or is it the Maybolt Gallyott?...With his doxy, French Bess the Scourge of the Channel (and any captured ladies paying too much attention to Dread Cap't Pepys) at his side. Their trusty if somewhat less dread first mate Hewer in support.

"I'm sea-sick, Sam'l." Bess hisses.

"So am I, but fake it, girl...Our deadly gang of cutthroat unpaid sailors will take it as weakness."

"Half of them are clerks from the office, Sam'l...They're heaving all over the deck."

"You, there...Not on quartermaster Jane's clean deck. Use the bucket!" she calls.

"...And the 'old salts' are mostly ex-sailors who haven't been at sea in years." she concludes. "They're barely to stand either."

"Things will settle down." the Capt magisterially proclaims.

"When?"

"Probably right after that approaching storm..." he points to black thunderclouds.

"he offers to give me 300l. for my success, which, however, I would not oblige him to, but will see the issue of it by fair play, and so I did presently draw a petition, which he undertakes to proffer to the Duke of York, and solicit for me, and will not seem to doubt of his success."

On the Pepys Diary Site News it was announced on 2010-31-8 that the first complete translation of the L&M edition of Pepys's diary into German has been published in a 9-vol. boxed set, also that there is a German day-by-day online version like pepysdiary.com . If we have difficulty comprehending the import of passages like the one discussed immediately above (and many other confounding passages like it), imagine how hard it would be for a non-native-English-speaking translator to grasp and convey their true meaning.

What did Sir W Batten die of? asks A De Araujo.On 3rd Oct Sam wrote: "I have observed him for these last two months to look very ill and to look worse and worse," which sounds as though it could have been anything - cardiac, circulatory, cancer, etc. Sir WB must have been a tough old bird, not giving up without a fight.

"he offers to give me 300l. for my success, which, however, I would not oblige him to, but will see the issue of it by fair play, and so I did presently draw a petition, which he undertakes to proffer to the Duke of York, and solicit for me, and will not seem to doubt of his success."

L&M note a copy of the petition (7 October, in Gibson's hand) is in NMM (the National Maritime Museum), LBK/8, p. 501; printed in Further Corr., p. 181. In it Pepys claimed that alone of the principal officers he had received no war bounty. He was granted the Maybolt -- 'towards satisfaction for disbursements' -- but it proved to be a poor reward. She was a prize taKen from the Dutch in 1666, and had recently come to the notice of the Navy Board because her captain had died and the mate and crew fallen sick. Thus untended, she declines in value, and in three months Pepys resolves to sell her. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1668/01/19/ (There is no record of her sale.)